Photographs and ephemera documenting Jacob Kaplan's life, family and work in the Jewish community of Seattle. Born in Poland in 1886, Jacob Kaplan was the eldest son of Mark and Sarah Mary Kaplan. Mark emigrated to the United States and in 1900, Sarah Mary, Jacob and the other Kaplan children joined Mark in Seattle. In 1909, Jacob married Celia Sussman, and they had four children: Joseph Henry, Ethel, Phillip and Leon Harold. Mark Kaplan owned a second-hand store, where his sons worked. In 1912, with some experience gained in a short apprenticeship with a printer in Poland, $65 capital, and a supply of paper equal to one-and-a-half railroad cars, Jacob opened the Kaplan Paper Company.

Jacob was one of the founders of the Herzl congregation and headed the Talmud Torah Hebrew School campaign. He later became a leader in the Congregation Bikur Cholim, president of the Seattle Hebrew Academy, member of the Ionic Lodge no. 90, and the president of the local chapter of B'nai B'rith. Following Celia's death, Jacob married Meta Buttnick in 1968. Jacob Kaplan died in 1974 and is buried in the Bikur Cholim cemetery.